Solved High CPU usage on J2.5 site

Hi

I have unacceptably high CPU usage on joomla.org.au . Please see forum page joomla.org.au/forum with page loads around 1 second.

e.g.
Jun 11 2012:
joomla.org.au
Top Process %CPU 164 ../index.php
Top Process %CPU 133 ../index.php
Top Process %CPU 127 ../index.php

Last week I upgraded the site to J2.5.4, installed an ultralite template and switched off almost all the other extensions. It's still using Kunena, obviously, but when i turned Kunena off, CPU uasge plummeted.

I have around 6,500 posts in there, from memory.

Do you know what I should be doing to diagnose and fix this issue? Will pruning help much?

Thanks v much
Dex


Here's my config:

Database collation check: The collation of your table fields are correct

Legacy mode: Disabled | Joomla! SEF: Enabled | Joomla! SEF rewrite: Enabled | FTP layer: Disabled |

This message contains confidential information

htaccess: Exists | PHP environment: Max execution time: 30 seconds | Max execution memory: 128M | Max file upload: 20M

Kunena menu details:

Joomla default template details : fastnetbootstrap | author: Fastnet | version: 1.1.0 | creationdate: 2012-05-16

Kunena default template details : Blue Eagle (default) | author: Kunena Team | version: 1.7.2 | creationdate: 2012-01-31

Kunena version detailled: Installed version: 1.7.2 | Build: 5215 | Version name: Omega | Kunena detailled configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

[th]Kunena config settings:[/th]

board_offline	0
board_ofset	0
enablerss	1
enablepdf	1
threads_per_page	20
messages_per_page	20
messages_per_page_search	20
showhistory	1
historylimit	6
shownew	1
jmambot	0
disemoticons	0
template	default
showannouncement	1
avataroncat	1
catimagepath	category_images/
showchildcaticon	1
annmodid	62
rtewidth	450
rteheight	300
enableforumjump	1
reportmsg	1
username	1
askemail	0
showemail	0
showuserstats	1
showkarma	1
useredit	1
useredittime	0
useredittimegrace	600
editmarkup	1
allowsubscriptions	1
subscriptionschecked	1
allowfavorites	1
maxsubject	200
maxsig	1000
regonly	0
changename	0
pubwrite	0
floodprotection	0
mailmod	1
mailadmin	0
captcha	1
mailfull	1
allowavatar	1
allowavatarupload	1
allowavatargallery	1
avatarquality	65
avatarsize	2048
allowimageupload	0
allowimageregupload	1
imageheight	800
imagewidth	800
imagesize	300
allowfileupload	0
allowfileregupload	1
filetypes	zip,txt,doc,gz,tgz,pdf,ppt
filesize	500
showranking	1
rankimages	1
avatar_src
fb_profile
pm_component
userlist_rows	30
userlist_online	1
userlist_avatar	1
userlist_name	1
userlist_username	1
userlist_posts	1
userlist_karma	1
userlist_email	0
userlist_usertype	0
userlist_joindate	1
userlist_lastvisitdate	1
userlist_userhits	1
latestcategory	0
showstats	1
showwhoisonline	1
showgenstats	1
showpopuserstats	1
popusercount	5
showpopsubjectstats	1
popsubjectcount	5
usernamechange	0
rules_infb	1
rules_cid	1
help_infb	1
help_cid	1
showspoilertag	1
showvideotag	1
showebaytag	0
trimlongurls	1
trimlongurlsfront	40
trimlongurlsback	20
autoembedyoutube	1
autoembedebay	0
ebaylanguagecode	en-us
fbsessiontimeout	1800
highlightcode	1
rss_type	post
rss_timelimit	month
rss_limit	40
rss_included_categories
rss_excluded_categories
rss_specification	rss2.0
rss_allow_html	1
rss_author_format	name
rss_author_in_title	1
rss_word_count	0
rss_old_titles	1
rss_cache	900
fbdefaultpage	categories
default_sort	asc
alphauserpointsnumchars	0
sef	1
sefcats	1
sefutf8	0
showimgforguest	1
showfileforguest	1
pollnboptions	20
pollallowvoteone	0
pollenabled	0
poppollscount	5
showpoppollstats	1
polltimebtvotes	00:15:00
pollnbvotesbyuser	100
pollresultsuserslist	1
maxpersotext	200
ordering_system	mesid
post_dateformat	ago
post_dateformat_hover	datetime
hide_ip	1
js_actstr_integration	0
imagetypes	jpg,jpeg,gif,png
checkmimetypes	1
imagemimetypes	image/jpeg,image/jpg,image/gif,image/png
imagequality	50
thumbheight	32
thumbwidth	32
hideuserprofileinfo	put_empty
integration_access	auto
integration_login	joomla
integration_avatar	kunena
integration_profile	kunena
integration_private	none
integration_activity	auto
boxghostmessage	0
userdeletetmessage	0
latestcategory_in	1
topicicons	1
onlineusers	1
debug	0
catsautosubscribed	0
showbannedreason	0
version_check	1
showthankyou	1
showpopthankyoustats	1
popthankscount	5
mod_see_deleted	0
bbcode_img_secure	text
listcat_show_moderators	1
lightbox	1
activity_limit	0
show_list_time	720
show_session_type	0
show_session_starttime	0
userlist_allowed	0
userlist_count_users	1
enable_threaded_layouts	0
category_subscriptions	post
topic_subscriptions	every
pubprofile	1
thankyou_max	10
email_recipient_count	0
email_recipient_privacy	bcc
email_visible_address
captcha_post_limit	0

Third-party components: None

Third-party SEF components: None

Plugins: System - Mootools Upgrade: Disabled | System - Mootools12: Disabled | Kunena Search 1.7.2

Modules: Kunena Latest 1.7.2 | Kunena Stats 1.7.2 | Kunena Login 1.7.2

Thanks, Dex, and welcome to Kunena.

There are a couple of issues here (one of which involving the menu) - you might find the topic How do I restore my Kunena menu? useful in that regard.

I would like to point this topic to my colleagues who may also have some ideas as to what is going on.

I think we should talk sometime soon, too. Please PM me if real-time online chat is an option for you (Skype only, in my case) and we'll tee-up a time to discuss, evaluate and try out a few idea.

From what I see in your config. report, there is no real indication of what it is that is impacting on CPU utilisation to the extent that is manifest at the site. As I said, I hope that my colleagues will be able to bring the benefit of their years of experience to bear in this case. We definitely want this site - your site - to be a winner!

In Joomla 2.5 you always need to have caching turned on -- otherwise it makes way too many MySQL calls, which slow down especially virtual servers (you have one, because of process CPU usage cannot go over 100% in real CPU).

On Apache processes, they probably looked the same before switching to J! 2.5, as there's almost no difference between J!1.5 and J!2.5 performance according to many benchmarks I've done (except that one thing without caching).

Do you have a lot of plugins in your installations. Plugins get loaded every time a page gets loaded in Joomla. Your template may not be optimized, find a way to minify and combine your files (css and js). Kunena 1.7 has some performance inhibitors as well, should not be a significant factor considering your post count. K2.0 will see improvements. These three factors can create a significant spike on the CPU when it prepares a page.

Thanks Matias.
Yes I have both standard Joomla caches turned on (config/plugin)

Thanks coder4life.

Yes I have put in a miniscule template to eradicate template bloat.
The old template had minification, but this one does not - jquery and mootools-more are both loading (slowly). I'll pack them down.

When I turn off Kunena I get CPU usage as follows:

Jun 17 2012 (partial stats, 06 hours into the day):
joomla.org.au 0.42 1.03 0.0
Top Process %CPU 27.0 [php]
Top Process %CPU 0.3 httpd [joomla.org.au] [/administrator/templates/bluestork/images/menu/icon-16-mess]
Top Process %CPU 0.1 httpd [joomla.org.au] [/templates/system/css/error.css]

So as you can see, much much better. Its hard for me to think that anything other than Kunena is causing the issue.

I also BTW optimised the MySQL DB, just in case it was lagging.

Hands up who thinks I should just cull my old forum posts?
They go back to 2007. I can eradicate half of them, bringing it down to 3k, without too much loss.

Frankly it's the only thing i can think of that might help

It's not Kunena (at least I'm 95% certain of it). If you would like to send me a PM, I would be happy to sit down and talk with you about the issue.

Altho I did also temporarily block Google and all its bot chums. They seem to visit with a truckoad of needs about every 5 mins.

Something on your site is hoarding the CPU and, as a by-product, is affecting Kunena. I am available to sit down with you, put our heads together, and talk the issues through. If you would like to contact me via Skype or even by telephone, please let me know by PM. I can call you, if you like. I would be happy to.